Will U.S. be a leader or follower in space?

July 8, 2011|By Bill Gregory

President Kennedy's announcement of the Apollo program is famous for its bold call to "take longer strides," but it also included a blunt warning to America that failure was possible because the Soviets were so far ahead.

America learned the lessons of that era well. Once we took the lead in space, we never gave it back. But that could be changing — and fast.

When the shuttle program ends with Atlantis' landing, America — for the first time in years — will have no capability to launch astronauts into space. To get our people to and from the space station, we will have to rely on Russian launches — at over $60 million a seat.

And it's not just a question of the shuttle. Earlier this year, America delayed a critical weather satellite launch until 2016, potentially reducing forecast accuracy by 50 percent and creating the first such "coverage gap" since the 1960s. While budgets are tight in an era of deadly tsunamis, tornadoes, and extreme weather, the word myopic — literally and figuratively — comes to mind.

Space exploration has never been easy. But for the last 50 years the United States has refused to accept second place. Partly this has been a function of our history — the nation of the Wright brothers and the Manhattan Project cannot sit by and leave the next round of great discoveries to others. Partly this has been necessary to preserve our national security — the "high ground" must always be defended; and space is the new high ground on which battlefield communications, precision targeting, and missile defense all depend.

And partly, it is fiscal common sense. History shows that the country that leads in space is the country that generates economy-changing innovations like computer microchips and satellite communications, as well as lifesaving medical advances like CAT scans and kidney dialysis — over 1,650 NASA spinoffs since 1976 alone.

Indeed, because of all this follow-on activity, for every dollar spent on the space program, the American economy receives roughly eight dollars in total benefit. Despite the national, military, and economic benefits of our efforts in space, these programs invariably end up in the crosshairs when budgets get tight because of politics. Because NASA has been responsible — and hasn't sprinkled its projects and facilities across a sufficient numbers of congressional districts — it often pays the political price on the budget guillotine.

But our competitors don't sleep in the meantime. Next up, China plans to orbit a permanent space station and send astronauts to the moon. India plans to send astronauts to both the moon and Mars. Brazil, Russia, Japan — even our deadly adversary Iran — are challenging us for the jobs, innovation, and military advantages of the high ground of space.

Fifty years ago, Alan Shepard became the first American in space, blasting off from Cape Canaveral on a 15-minute suborbital flight. While America rightly celebrated that historic achievement, our joy was bittersweet as weeks earlier Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had orbited the entire planet on a flight that lasted nearly seven times as long.

Fifty years from now, a new generation of explorers will be pushing the frontiers outward, and reaping the benefits. They may be Americans; they may not. In Reagan's time, there was no doubt we were "still pioneers." Whether that will be still be true in our grandchildren's time is for us to decide.

Former astronaut Bill Gregory piloted the Space Shuttle for a record 16 days on mission STS-67 and currently is a vice president at Qwaltec, Inc. in Tempe, Arizona.